Wanderer 1
by FractalGalaxies
Summary: One of the Oracles's prophecies is fulfilled as a child of the Matrix with telekenetic and telepathic powers. Minerva is the key to defending Zion against the oncoming war of the machines, and this is her story.
1. A Lecture, a Luck, a Life, a Lie

Log 1  
  
"I suppose you're all wondering why I called you here," Captain Duvian spoke to the audience. Nearly the entirety of Zion's inhabitants was gathered in a central meeting area inside the temple. Murmurs broke out in the crowd. Morpheus and the crew of his ship stood by the side of the meeting area along the outer wall. They remained silent, knowing for the most part what the issue at hand entailed. In fact, Morpheus and Trinity had both been on the developing team for the mission, and were rightfully nervous about the reaction of their work.  
"Our team of scientists and engineers has been presented with the exceedingly difficult task of developing an alternate method of defense using the reserves that are available to us in our present position to wage the inevitable war against the machines using some option other than guns and ammunition. Some figure we have a secret weapon right beneath our feet, so to speak.  
"Well ladies and gentlemen, we have succeeded. And yes, the answer was literally under our feet." The room of full of people broke out in commotion. The assembly leader cracked the gavel once, twice, and the voices hushed. Captain Duvian cleared his throat.  
"As most of you may know, this great city of Zion is centered within close range of the core of the Earth. The Earth has a rapidly spinning molten outer core of lava, where directly in the center is an extremely dense and great amass of the heaviest of Earth's metals - mostly iron and nickel. These two factors give the Earth a strong, detectable magnetic field, extending from the inner core of the earth thousands of kilometers out into space." The captain paused.  
"Continue," one of the assemblymen ushered.  
"As Zion prepares for the oncoming war, it is our suggested plan of action to use a medium to concentrate the abundantly supplied and equally powerful magnetic field of the Earth's core and use it to our advantage. Should we be able to successfully concentrate the natural resource of magnetism around us, a large enough pulse would destroy the machines' main army before it ever breached the walls of our city." Voices broke out in commotion again. This time, the assembly spoke amongst themselves as well.  
"It's an altogether fine plan," sarcastically grumbled one of the leaders, "but have you come to this assembly with an unfinished idea? You have no medium for such a large and unresearched task. We have but precious hours before our city comes under attack, and you venture to waste our time?"  
"The machine is being built at the present time. It will be only a matter of days before it is finished. We are confident in the outcome of the mission." Captain Duvian remained steady.  
"DAYS?" Bellowed the leader. "We haven't got days. Why is this project taking so long?"  
"We haven't been able to develop a machine properly equipped to withstand the high amounts of magnetism long enough to fully concentrate a pulse. The previous models have been built of metals and parts too weak to survive the initiation, not only from the pressure alone but the gravity. The machine destroyed its own hardware in the sense of its own purpose, in the same way we would use it for our defense. I assure you it is only an issue of trial and error before a withstanding machine is designed," he trailed off, insecure in his promise.  
"This is an outrage. This is the best you could come up with? What good is an idea that remains in the concept stage! Throw it out and start from scratch."  
"We cannot end the project, sir. It is almost complete and I have faith in my team. Brainstorming another idea is out of the question. We haven't the parts nor the foundation to begin again. We will have the means necessary with time to spare"  
"There is no longer such a thing as time to spare. You get me a solution now. For the sake of Zion we don't need half-assed ideologies! Meeting adjourned." The gravel cracked and the audience broke into fervor. Morpheus and Trinity cringed away from the final blow. The idea, because of its own self-destructive nature, didn't fly with the assembly. The plan was a potentially excellent and successful one, but the issue at hand was one of modern technology. The machine couldn't handle its own purpose. Although the enemy of the human race could perfect its own being enough to have a successful, and at the moment dominant civilization, human technology and knowledge of the machine had yet to reach such advances. The group headed back to the ship to do some more research. The imminent war was hovering mere days away, and an answer had to be found. The fate of existence rest in their hands.  
  
Neo lay in the darkness of his room resting. His long day of training was catching up with him, mental exhaustion in the form of physical pain, weakness slowly tracing circles throughout his body. He felt the next morning would be one of sore dread.  
He rolled over and closed his eyes, waiting for the sweet bliss of sleep to envelop his body. Outside his door, however, he heard a commotion in the main room.  
  
It had been a long, solemn night on the Nebuchadnezzar. Members of the developmental team - namingly Morpheus, Trinity and Link - had been downhearted by the initial rejection of the project. Dinner was quiet, cleanup was solitary and everyone was meandering about the ship in their own off kilter world. "Guys, you better come take a look at this. I'm getting some crazy off-the- chart readings here," Link called. Morpheus and Trinity came over to the monitors, analyzing the dripping code. Their expressions became one of puzzlement.  
"That's neural activity," Morpheus murmured, his fingers tracing code falling on the screen. His eyes darted from left to right. "Neural activity that I've never seen on such a wavelength. Link, can you bring up readings in the database? I'd like to have a look at this." He sat down. Trinity stared at the screen.  
"Look at that. The code is screaming for mercy. I've never seen such a reaction before." Link's fingers flew gracefully across the keys. He flipped some switches and pressed a blinking blue button. One of the dead monitors on the right of the station switched on. The screen spliced into four quarters, each scanning and displaying a different three-dimensional image of the brain. Wavelength frequencies and data ran rampant on the screen.  
"From what I can tell, there are neurotransmitters intensely firing in the parts of the brain that aren't normally activated," Trinity said, her eyes following the data. "What could it mean?"  
  
The smell of incense and candles was piecing the room with a burning fume. Shadows danced upon the wall in eager rhythm, lighting the room with flickering waves.  
A figure sat amidst the shadows; from time to time her face was light by a frolicking flame. She set the book she had been reading on the ground next to her. Her eyes focused on a single point in the distance, then closed.  
Minerva Walker sat cross-legged in front of the mirror with her arms out in front of her. Humming almost inaudibly, she flinched her hands and concentrated furiously. She felt it was time to know.  
For a few moments, Minerva was absolutely still. Her breathing was hushed almost to nonexistence, her being and soul meshed into one burning source of energy. Minerva consciously drew energy from the field around her, extracting it into her own aura. A small buzzing feeling somewhere deep inside of her was born, a feeling that set in rhythm the wavelengths of her mind. She felt the air around her humming and alive with her own energy. Experimenting with the forces of what appeared to be her own controllable nature, Minerva was mastering her own field of power.  
In an instant, she felt a slipping away, free-falling into nothingness. The humming faded slowly, the vibrations around her steadying to a smooth end. The world was black and spinning, an eternity in a vacuum of time. Before she knew it, the dreaming seemed to have stopped. Or was it only beginning?  
She looked around, unsure of what universe she was in. The last thing she could remember was fleeing quickly from her mind, and that was the sense of conscious being. Here, wherever she was, time wasn't just standing still. It was nothing more than a metaphor.  
  
"Where'd she go? I lost her," Link exclaimed, quickly searching the Matrix for the girl he had just been analyzing. The presence of her neural activity was no longer an obviousity.  
"She cannot just disappear," Morpheus grunted. The monitors that were once displaying her neural activity were blank.  
"She's awol, sir," Link sadly spoke. His searched failed to turn up any remaining traces of her. Some stagnant remnants of her frequencies burned in the hole where she once was. It was as if she detached herself from the Matrix and escaped into the nether regions of some plane between the Matrix and the real world.  
"I want you to keep an eye out for her. Where the hell she could have got to is the question. Even dreams don't extend beyond the Matrix. Alert me the moment she returns," he boomed, and walked out of the room. 


	2. Secret Meetings and Hidden Meanings

Log 2  
  
Laying in the dark and solitude of his room, Neo relaxed and allow himself to sink into his bed. He had been up unusually early in the morning to finish off most of his training and had had a very long and trying day. He had been strengthening himself in leaps and bounds, practicing and training with his comrades incessantly since his arrival in the real world. He had finally made the jump and was able to see the Matrix for what it really was - spiraling, running strands of green code. The others were simply amazed with his abilities - he was already able to fly for short distances, which no earlier 'One' had ever lived long enough to accomplish. Here it was, only a few short weeks since his coming and he was already beyond Morpheus' comprehension and control of the Matrix. His body and mind were fatigued both physically and emotionally. After his training and earlier before the meeting, Neo and Trinity had paid a visit to the Oracle. Her kind, soft-spoken words claimed of an answer to the situation at hand. The answer would come in the form of a marvel of a power borne, and would be the key evolutionary step of all of mankind. However, the key would not come to them - it would be up for them to go to it. Now, Neo's mind spun with possible answers. As always, the Oracle's advice came in the form of hints and riddles. He couldn't figure out what she meant, but all he was certain of was that the machine wasn't ready to serve its purpose, and it probably wouldn't ever be. The machines themselves as a society had the ability to perfect their own path of evolution as past history had now made tragically and perfectly clear, but mankind still had several thousand years before it would ever produce a better human. The questions plagued his mind for what felt like hours before he was able to quiet his psyche and fall into rest.  
He slipped into the comforting blackness of sleep to a soothing dream. His heart fondly remembered the gloriously bright sun and the rippling green waves of the grass of the earth. As fake as everything turned out to be, he couldn't help but long for the peace and beauty of the world. He could feel the cool blades tickle his feet as he walked barefoot through the loving skin of the earth. The wind was floating past him, enveloping him in a dawn warmness he only wished he could feel one again.  
As he looked up to the bluing sky, he noticed a figure atop a mound across the field. It was obviously a young girl, hair rippling in the breeze, sitting cross-legged in the grass with her face towards the rising sun.  
He made his way towards her, stepping lightly through the grass and enjoying the soulful sensation of every step he took. When he was at the base of the mound, he could see her face more clearly, and was startled by her innocent beauty. She had long, deep brown hair, blazing hazel eyes, and a very fair complexion. Her face, at least 3 years younger than her true age, was glowing in the morning sun. Her eyes were afirewith the suns rays, wide and curious as her soul. They looked up at him as he made it to the top of the mound, two small tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. Neo could only stare in awe and wonder.  
She sat, still motionless, looking sadly up into his face. He immediately took notice of the long, thick plug jutting grossly out of the base of her skull, running into the soft earth. A familiar chill ran over his skin.  
When she spoke, her calm, childish voice brought an eerie comfort to Neo's sudden curious sympathy. She was reciting a poem in a sing-song voice..  
"Has it all faded? Has it been lost? Extinguished to nothing but smoldering loss? As the days do trip and years do pass, I'll always forget you next to last. The first thought slipping from my mind, is all the peace I left behind."  
  
Neo's eyes slowly opened to the darkness of the room. He lay for a few moments, listening to his soft, steady breathing. Before he even had time to ponder the dream, the door creaked open. It was Trinity.  
"Good morning sunshine," she said cheerfully. "Breakfast is ready. There's some news you should hear about."  
Neo stood up and changed out of his pajamas into his daily clothes. He couldn't help but wonder what the dream meant, and what the poem she had recited was about. It was quite catchy though, and remained in the back of his thoughts from the time he woke till the time he sat down to eat. So catchy was it that at the breakfast table Neo grabbed a pen and wrote down what he could remember of it on a paper napkin.  
Morpheus placed a folder of printouts on the table and stood up to address his crew as they ate. They all listened intently, not really absorbed in their usual meal of slop.  
"Last night," he started, "Link and I stumbled upon what could be an interesting turn-around in our luck. A young potential was found to have peculiar neural activity, with cognitive wavelengths off the chart and beyond any previous comparison. After some extensive research and analysis," he paused, rapping his fingers on the folder "we found Minerva's neurological patterns to have extra-sensory energies."  
The group materialized a response of shock and disbelief. Neo narrowed his eyes on some invisible focal point in the distance, tilting his head slightly in confusion. Somewhere inside him he felt a light switch on. Something beneath the surface connected, and beyond his ability to grasp it at that moment, it made sense.  
"ESP? You don't actually believe in that garbage do you? How could a child of the Matrix have such control? It isn't plausible, nor is it possible," Ghost barked indignantly, sipping his coffee.  
Morpheus smiled. "Do you remember, Ghost, when you were but a newborn to this cold and real world? Could you have ever imagined in the entire span of your pseudo-life that you were but a slave to something you never remember happening and were living a cruel lie - that nothing at the end of your fingertips, nothing being transmitted from your eyes into your brain, nothing you've tasted, touched, smelled, heard, saw, thought or felt could even in the slightest notion be completely unreal and in fact a simulation? I believe no longer in the controversial ideology of possible and impossible. Plausibility," he paused, raising his eyes to meet Ghost's, "is in the eye of the beholder." Ghost objected no further. Morpheus cleared his throat and continued.  
"Speculation of the hidden powers of the human mind, as it appears, has dated as early back as millennia B.C. The understanding of the human mind has never been in an entirety - therefore we could only wonder what the dark sides of our minds held shrouded in secret. As we all know, only about 11% of the entire human brain as a whole is used on a daily basis. The other 89% of silent operation is basically in the dark to us as a whole, but certain unexplainable phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, as well as pre- and retrocognition, have all been linked to previously inactive parts of the brain.  
"Shortly before the first war of the humans and the machines, scientific advances in the understanding of the human mind were at peaks never seen before in history. Experiments involving the transmission of certain frequencies of energies into normally inactive and unused parts of the brain opened up the potential of a superior and unknown source of power. The human race toyed incessantly with the idea of finding a solution to essentially master the secrets of our own existence overnight and propel our forces against the machines with the untapped resource of the human mind, just as our mission is to create a machine than can focus the Earth's natural resource of magnetic energy as a weapon.  
"It is believed to be that the human mind had the ability to bend and shape the energies of the world, both real and fake, just as our minds can propagate the rules of physics and mathematics in the Matrix. One is conscious, the other sub. Her sixth sense is no different than our true sense of the Matrix. It's an evolutionary defense mechanism,..."  
"...Survival of the fittest," Neo murmured. He looked up at his leader.  
"Morpheus, I had a vision about Minerva last night - it came to me in a dream. I saw her, and although I've never met her and don't know what she looks like, I know it was her." Neo paused, looking around the room. He had the intense attention of all of his comrades. "Although I cannot figure out the meaning of it," he furrowed his brow, lost in confusion, "I know she can help us. She has the ability to control the Matrix as we do now, yet she isn't even aware of its existence. I believe she is what the Oracle told me about - the alternate method of defense for Zion."  
"The machine!" Trinity exclaimed with realization. She grabbed the folder of printouts on Minerva's neural activity and scanned the data. She quickly went over the disturbances in the code around her, and their effects on the energies around her. The aura of electromagnetism around her was the most prominently skewed of the data, showing leaps and bounds in irregularity as well as patterns of conscious control. "She is our answer to the machine! The disturbances of the energy fields around her involving her extensive neural activity were concentrated prominently in the magnetic region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Her extrasensory energies could be the key."  
A smile crossed Morpheus' face. You were always the brightest wolf of the pack, Trinity.  
"Perhaps it is so that the machine medium isn't stable enough to handle such a pulse, but the human mind is," Morpheus concluded. Trinity nodded.  
The group broke into commotion.  
"Are we agreed,..." Morpheus began, but he was interrupted abruptly. It was Link.  
"There's a problem, sir! You better come take a look at this."  
  
The group clamored from their seats at the table and assembled around the computer mainframe, all eyes on the dripping code of the monitors. Trinity gasped.  
"What the fuck...." she murmured.  
"Minerva reappeared on screen a few moments ago. I was watching her neural activity, which mind you is still off the charts. Wherever she came back from, she did some pretty bad damage." Morpheus narrowed his eyes at the screens in confusion. There was an inconsistency focused on a single point in the Matrix. There was an open, bleeding wound in the code.  
"There's a hole in the Matrix."  
"Ghosts and UFO's," Neo mumbled.  
"Bingo. Wherever she went, when she returned she tore through a few threads in the code. Her energy manifest, in essence, broke the Matrix. Or at least poked a little hole in it." Link sighed, unsure of what exactly how it was happening.  
"They're on her already," Morpheus exclaimed. The agents wouldn't delay in finding her. The Matrix had never been torn before, and it was only a matter of time before the proper defenses were initiated. "We have to go in after her. This is our only chance. They're on the way."  
Neo sat down in his chair and strapped himself in, determined. "I'm going in after her. She is the answer. I know it. I'm not going to let anything happen to her." Trinity grasped his hand.  
"I'm coming with you."  
"Link," Morpheus spoke, "get us in there as fast as possible. We have no time to lose." Link's fingers flew across the keys as the crew members plugged Trinity, Neo and Morpheus into the Matrix. The hole was gushing code, strands on every end coming apart. The fibrous threads, woven like a blanket, were stretching and pulling apart. Like a vast and inescapable nothing, the Matrix would cave in on itself. The warping of the Matrix itself would be the downfall and destruction of the pseudo-world, enveloping the human race in extinction. 


	3. A Hole in My Dimension: A Heroic Rescue

Log 3  
  
"What the FUCK!" Minerva cried out, shielding herself from what she couldn't explain. Before she could connect her body back with her soul, she was snapped back to reality. Her mind couldn't rationally process what was happening. The candles blew out in a violent hiss, an almost vacuum being created in the room from the gaping hole in front of her. She saw bright flashes of green inside the chasm, its edges jagged and frayed like a hole torn in some kind of dimensional fabric. The image was almost computerized, too resembling of a cheap special effect to be real.  
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," she cried in near hysterics, backing up against the wall, knocking over stacks of books and objects from her dresser. "What have I done, oh Jesus Christ, oh shit, what have I done?!" The bleeding from inside the hole was incessant, reality dripping and warping out of the gaping wound. Her voice was stolen from her mouth, her words robbed and devoured by the black hole forming in her bedroom.  
Little did she know that outside of her window manifested itself a trio of Agents, donned with black sunglasses, big guns, and a grim sneer. The three turned to one another, nodding knowingly, and Agent Smith swiftly unhinged the door with one kick. The noise was drowned out by the hurricane- forced winds swirling around Minerva's room.  
"I've gotta get out of here," she cried. Throwing herself to the floor, she crawled with a purpose along the walls of her room, trying to avoid the black hole growing larger in the center of her room. Winds swirled violently, screaming and whistling along the boundaries of her room. The walls crackled, warping ever so slightly towards the hole in the world. Green code was spilling out of the opening, illuminating the room with an eerie, sickly green color. Within a few moments, the room would cave in,... soon, her entire house. Eventually, the neighborhood, and given enough time, the city. Just as stars are born and die out in the vast expanses of the true universe, the self-cannibalism of the wound would release disastrous amounts of energy. The eventual collapsing of the city would tug the strands from opposite corners of the Matrix world and pull the entire fabric apart, promptly ending the entire human race.  
Minerva, unawares of the dire mortality of the situation, inched past the gushing rip, tenderly avoided the oozing code.  
With little time to waste, Minerva stood up and ran for the door, which proved a very difficult task. The collapsing gravity of the room sank her to her knees, jerking her backwards to the ground. Code splishing and splashing from the tear dripped onto her arm, sending up a funnel of steam as the code reacted with and ate away at her mortal flesh.  
With an inhuman scream of pain and determination, she managed the last of her menial strength and flung herself for the door, gripping the savagely hot and warping doorknob. With a whole-hearted thrust, she yanked the door open, and with the help of gravity and wind, the door was promptly plucked off of its hinges and sucked into the cannibalistic hole. Green code exploded in a spray of sparks across the room, burning and singing holes in reality just as Minerva ambled her way out into the hall. Sinking under the unworldly pain of the searing burn, she tripped and crawled down the hallway, edging towards the stairs. She had just bumped down to the last step, her body a heartbeat of pain, when she stopped crawling. Raising her eyes with her quickly draining strength, she was granted an unholy view of 6 pairs of dark pant legs, all equipped with 2 shiny, polished black leather shoes, each pair of legs connected to 3 stern and grimacing enforcers of the law. A wave of dread was creeping along her bones, the feeling sinking deeper and deeper into the flesh, finding the insecure and sensitive parts of the body to feed upon first before finding its way to her heart. Goosebumps passed like a flood over her entire body.  
"Oh God,..." she murmured, knowing she had done something very, very wrong, and was now about to pay dearly.  
"So, Miss Walker, we meet at last. I've had my little," he chuckled softly, "sights set on you for a while. Seems like good old Darwinism was dealing your pathetic kind a hand in your favor, mmm? Having fun with your new powers? You've played a very naughty little game my friend." He frowned gruesomely, kneeling down to Minerva's excruciating level. The burning was starting to subside, but the searing pain screamed to be put out of its misery. Tears welled up in Minerva's eyes, her vision blurring in and out.  
"You are very important, Minerva. Very, very important. With your intended cooperation and facing a very sorry consequence should you decide to be a naughty little girl again, I think we can work out a deal, perhaps?" He whispered, his face inching closer and closer to hers, his hot, moist breath filling her nostrils.  
"This,..." she choked, unable to form the words that kept repeating in her mind. This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening.  
"Oh, but it is my dear, and that's the price you have to pay, for just a dream." His lips curled back from his teeth into a hideous sneer. He reached down to haul her away from the wreckage.  
  
"We made it," Morpheus said, hanging up the phone and exiting the car. Running with full speed towards her house, Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus felt the tug of morphed gravity - slipping, sliding, bleeding. The density and consistency of the air shifted violently as they drew within close range. Bright streaks of green were emanating from the windows of Minerva's home. The sky above her house took on a crackling, broken look, sinking in upon the black hole.  
"Oh, sweet Jesus," Trinity whispered in horror, watching and feeling as the Matrix slowly decomposed on itself. The tug of gravity and destruction drew greater and more intense the closer they drew to her home.  
  
The front door had been busted in as chunks of splinters and dust littered the floor of the entryway. Within no time the group slunk into the entry hall and huddled there, manning their guns and crouching low against the wall. The soft violence of Agent Smith's voice chortled with vengeance in the living room at the base of the stairs, where Minerva pleaded and struggled with sanity, and wrestled weakly with consciousness.  
"You're not taking me anywhere you cock-sucking fools!" Minerva cried, gathering the last of her strength for a final stance. Agent Smith, grinning wildly at the prospect of resistance, drew back slightly and allowed the girl to stand on her own. Weakness dripped from her pores as she sucked up the pain and set herself ready for whatever she had to do.  
"I'll take care of Smith," Neo whispered to the others.  
"Make sure nothing happens to her," Morpheus murmured. The trio cocked their guns, the clicks echoing throughout the house, only to be stolen by the creeping black hole that had almost completely devoured the 3rd floor. The staircase creaked and crunched, folding in upon itself and warping to an eerie, wrong shape. The Agents' ears immediately perked, hearing the noise of their intruding enemies.  
Minerva gave a battle cry and reared back, sending her foot flying at Agent Smith. Undaunted by the obvious prospect of their opponents, Smith caught her foot as swiftly as a bird dives for the kill. Piece of cake. Smith's expression was one of content accuracy. Agent Jones and Brown cocked their own guns and slinked across the living room, firing a warning look at Smith. Holding her foot and smiling, Minerva took a swing at Smith's crotch. Her fist came in contact with the soft, sensitive flesh of his groin area and sent an explosion of pain firing up into Agent Smith's torso. He fell backwards, gaining composure on the couch behind him. Steadying himself and scowling, he growled, "That actually hurt."  
Running up the railing, Trinity bounded from the staircase railing to the couch, landing with catlike grace and firing directly at Agent Brown's skull. Ducking and somersaulting to the piano, Agent Brown lifted the bench and hurled it in Trinity's direction. Trinity fell back behind the couch and pulled it over, creating a barrier between her and the spray of bullets firing from Agent Brown's gun. Morpheus, teetering with a purpose on the last stair, forward-rolled himself across the living room, unloading most of a double-clip in the direction of the Agents.  
Agent Smith ducked down amidst the fire and grabbed the girl in his clutches. Screaming for justice, Minerva twisted and writhed as only a snake would, squirming in his steel grip. His fingers slipped from around her as she ducked for the ground. However, his quick arms darted around her body, and he carried her in a bear hug into the kitchen.  
Neo, downstairs in the entryway, saw an opportunity before his eyes. Another set of doors in the entryway led to the den, where he could take the stairs into the kitchen and surprise Smith from behind. He swung one of the doors open quietly and darted into the den, only to end up staring down the barrel of Agent Smith's gun.  
"Mr. Anderson, how predictable," he emphasized, his voice purring with content. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and sorry you could not travel both. Always the road less traveled by." A small smile crept up in the corners of his mouth.  
"What is it you want with the girl, Smith? What purpose does she have to serve for you? She's useless to you here; you don't need her help in the Matrix," Neo growled.  
"Oh, but Mr. Anderson, I know you do," he murmured. The smile grew even broader. "You see she's, well, like a daughter to me. I love her," Smith sneered. "I can't let you take her - we've grown so close."  
"Bullshit!" Neo yelled. Mr. Smith stood almost motionless, studying Neo's reaction with a look of amusement.  
  
Guns fired noisily and bullets clanged to the floor rapidly in the background. Upstairs, the newcomers in black acrobatically defied several laws of the now crumbling gravity, walking along the walls and unloading clips in the general direction of the Agents. Glass from all of the cabinets and dressers in the living and dining rooms shattered, and the fan broke from the ceiling and crashed down onto Minerva's mother's new $4000 dining room display table. She was only thankful that her parents were both at work and not at home to witness the destruction of their beautiful home - had they been, she would have been grounded for the next 7 lifetimes.  
Morpheus ducked just not fast enough and caught a bullet in the shoulder, sending him backward to the ground behind the couch. Trinity looked from behind the kitchen wall and saw her partner fall. As fast as lightning and with the ceaseless fury of a force of nature, she darted into the living room, and using Agent Jones's body as a springboard, somersaulted in slow motion through the air, planted her feet firmly on Agent Jones' shoulders, and catapulted into Agent Brown's direction. Agent Jones tumbled into the kitchen. Agent Brown jumped out of the way a little too late - Trinity's swift boot to the face sent him flying through the living room window, completely shattering it and slicing his body, sending rivets of blood and fragments of glass to the carpet. The agent's body hit the ground and burst into thousands of bright green glyphs. Morpheus lay huddled behind the couch in pain. He quickly tossed the empty pistol to the side and pulled out his trusty .9mm. Trinity swirled around to find Agent Jones once again standing, this time in the kitchen and with his gun held out in front. Bullets exploded from the gun and fired through the living room - some fell dead to the floor at the base of the stairs, others were sucked into the black hole that had reached the top of the staircase. The house was creaking and groaning under its own demise.  
  
"Is the simple life of a Matrix child really any of your concern, Mr. Anderson? What prospect does she have for the sorry remains of your kind, hmm? Nothing can save your band of brothers, and its demise is only a fortune granted by a few days of time." He grimaced, cocking his gun. "You should thank me for ending yours prematurely, so you needn't face the truth of your own mortal inferiority." In slow motion, the agent's gun fired a bullet. Time seemed to pause for a fraction of a moment. The bullet was initially aimed directly in the center of Neo's eyes, but never made it that far.  
Bits of the ceiling came crumbling down as the structure of the house twisted and warped. Plaster fell in a heap atop Agent Smith as Neo ducked behind an arm chair. The bullet grazed nothing but air as it plunged into the far wall of a den, colliding with the hinges of a closet door. The bullet exploded in a cloud of shrapnel, sending the door tumbling down to the ground. A muffled cry was heard inside.  
Neo leaped from behind the chair, guns drawn and sent a spray of bullets into the cloud of dust and debris. Smith tumbled backwards towards the far wall of the den, sustaining a bullet in his forearm. The fog of war began to disperse and revealed Agent Smith on his ass amongst the destruction. In the essence of a spider and in a fraction of the time, Agent Smith leapt from the floor to the side wall and out of the array of Neo's bullets. Neo's guns followed the tricky agent, trailing his progress as he ran along the wall. Just as Smith leapt for Neo, the entire ceiling collapsed to the ground, sending the two of them into a disconcerted jumble.  
Amidst the dust, Smith rolled over on top of Neo, wrapped his fingers around his throat and sent a barrage of punches into his face. Neo flinched in pain with every stroke of Smith's fist.  
  
Trinity rose from behind the couch, her favorite semi-automatic clutched tightly in her hand. "As usual time is not on my fucking side and neither are you," she snapped, unloading a clip in the direction of the kitchen. Agent Brown dove to his right and propped himself up along the inside of the doorway leading to the living room, narrowly missing a barrage of bullets that tore through what remained of Minerva's kitchen. Brown paused, knowing he may very well be on his own now. No matter. He drew his spare from the holster and turned to aim. However, his expectations were cut short. A hand swiftly knocked the gun from his own to the floor. He was nose-to-nose with Morpheus, the center of his forehead lining up with the barrel of his gun.  
Brown whirled around to his opposite to find himself yet again face- to-face with the enemy, this time staring down the barrel of Trinity's trusty semi. "Three's a crowd," she sneered menacingly. Agent Brown, with a feeling of dread, turned to face his death. Two guns loaded, two bullets exploded. His shattered corpse fell to the floor. Now to find the girl before it was too late. 


	4. Bittersweet Reunion

Log 4  
  
Neo choked and struggled under the relentless and powerful hands of the Agent, who reveled in the suffering of his enemy. Chunks of the skeleton of the third floor were tumbling to the ground all around them. What was left standing was sucked into the monstrous hole, green code streaming and flashing within its core. The hole opened in the ceiling, revealing the nothing.  
Tucking his legs up to his chest in between himself and the agent, he frog-kicked Smith with all of his might. His fingers slipped from around Neo's throat as he vertically soared towards the ceiling. Puncturing an even wider hole in the ceiling, the agent was caught by the gravity of the swirling black hole. Bits of code exploded in a spray as the agent was pulled through into the chasm. It devoured him whole.  
Neo quickly stood up, dusting himself off and concentrating on his purpose. The house was in ruins all around him, more and more of the ceiling disappearing by the moment as matter and time itself were dismantled and disintegrated.  
He concentrated his senses on looking for human activity around him. Morpheus and Trinity appeared at the stairs, expressions of relief and worry. They joined him in the den.  
"Neo we have," Trinity started, but was cut short.  
"Shh, I hear her!" He cried aloud. He followed his intuition to the closet, where he reached into the darkness. Amongst the clutter lay a girl bound and gagged, curled in the fetal position. Blood caked her face and clothing, her left eye socket was swollen and a large black hole on her forearm was burnt into the flesh of the bone from the code. Cuts and scratches lined her broken skin. Gathering the girl in his arms quickly but gently, he was overcome with a million different emotions - joy, sorrow, pity, relief, nostalgia, déjà vu. I have seen you before, stranger, he softly said to himself. If only in our dreams have we already met.  
The foursome made their way to the entry as the third floor caved in on the first, backgrounded by random and frequent sounds of glass shattering, wood splintering, furniture and foundation crashing and breaking apart like paper. The house would be gone in a matter of moments.  
They darted out the warping doorway and raced against time to the running car. As they neared it, Trinity reached into her holster and pulled out a grenade. She bit down on the pin, yanked the grenade from it, and hurled it towards the intersection of Minerva's driveway and the street. Just as the group reached the car and literally hurled themselves inside, a team of SWAT vans and police cars swerved around the corner down the road and roared towards her house. Several cop cars pulled around the driveway, blocking any possible vehicular escape (as only a common police officer of the law would predict), whereas one bulletproof van careened towards the car. The car roared into first and they pulled away as an explosion rocked the neighborhood. Several police cars burst into flames and officers went flying in all directions. Two of the SWAT vans tipped over, emptying the teams inside into the street.  
The car fled up the road as the SWAT van fishtailed behind it. Swinging to an almost seventy degree angle, the van kept close on the little black Nissan Maxima.  
"What is going to be done of the black hole?" Trinity asked, yanking the phone out of its holster.  
"Do you see the white car that just pulled up behind the group of others?" Morpheus said, peering in the rearview mirror and he sped away from the scene.  
"Yes," she nodded.  
"Those are programs dispatched to the site of a glitch. They are the repairmen of the Matrix - the plumbers and carpenters, if you will. They are designed to attack the problem and fix it by any means necessary."  
"What will they do?" She asked.  
"They have a number of options. Personally, I believe all history of the incident, starting with the existence of Minerva's family and their past, the phone number and address along with the entire property of the house will be erased, and the programming of the Matrix will be adjusted so that nothing had ever happened at a non-existent address." Trinity looked down, and for a moment felt sorry for the remains of Minerva's now shattered life.  
"How is she doing?" She asked, leaning over the seat and staring into the back where the girl lay across Neo's lap. He was checking her pulse and soothing the hair back from her face.  
"A weak pulse, barely detectable, but its there." He peeled back the fabric that had melted into her skin from a wound of particular interest. "But look at this Trin," he said, exposing the burn. "What do you assume could have done this? It's so concentrated, and all the way to the bone."  
"Looks like she was exposed directly to a stream of code. I've never seen anything like it before," she replied, studying the wound. Morpheus nodded.  
"When a string of pure code directly touches exposed flesh, the code sinks deep within the skin and penetrates immediately all the way to the bone. The pain she will feel when she awakes, I pity, will be like the pain that no human on this Earth has felt before." He took noticed of the SWAT vehicle coming up quickly on his rear, gaining speed and gunning for them all.  
"Operator," Link said.  
"Link," Trinity cried, exasperated, "we need a safe haven, any way we can ditch these SWAT bastards?"  
"Hold on a sec, bringing up the map," he replied. There was a pause as the sound of bullets began exploding in their ears. The back left window shattered, and the sound of ratta-tatta-tatta-tatta as bullets flew rocked the car. "Are you guys alright? Hello? HELLO?" Link cried into the phone.  
"Dammit," Morpheus cursed, swinging around an S-curve before flying through a stop sign and booking it down the road. The car bounced violently, causing the cel phone to fly out of Trinity's hands.  
"They're gaining on us," Neo yelled. His answer was 3 bullets through the back windshield. "SHIT!" he cried, shielding himself and Minerva from the spray of glass.  
"Neo, do you see the gun lying under Trinity's seat?" Morpheus asked. Neo reached underneath, just missing a bullet to the side of the face, and felt for a gun. Trinity's heart jumped in her throat as she watched the bullet narrowly miss his head. Finding it, Neo picked it up and analyzed it.  
"Aim for the left headlight. The fuel tank takes up most of the entire front, so hitting it shouldn't be a problem," Morpheus instructed as he swerved the car around another corner. Neo regained composure after being flung across the back seat, sat up, and concentrated on guiding the bullet to its destination. He focused, squinting one eye shut, and fired rapidly into the front chamber of the armored van. Most of the bullets reflected off, but two hit home and shattered the headlight. There was an explosion of sparks; fire shot from underneath the front end and engulfed the nose of the van. The van immediately slowed down. The team's response was to unload as many bullets as possible before the van burst into flames.  
  
The sound of a thousand metal raindrops detonating against the car's metal frame was heard, almost deafening all 3 of its conscious passengers. The rest of the windows shattered - Trinity's leather suit was cut in several places. Morpheus' cheek was scratched and 2 of his knuckles were cut open. A gigantic fiery explosion shook the Earth just as a stray bullet punctured and burst the back left tire of the Maxima, sending the car veering wildly all over the road. An oncoming SUV slammed on the brakes and backed into a driveway in terror as the Maxima swerved onto the lawn of an unsuspecting neighbor's house. The car plowed through the mailbox, tearing up the entire front lawn and sending a spray of dirt and rocks in all directions. The car finally stopped as it nailed a large bush adjacent to the left side of the house. Morpheus quickly looked around at all of his passengers.  
"Are you all alright? Neo, how is she doing?" He asked, unbuckling himself.  
"I'm fine," Trinity said, wiping a smear of blood off of her leather suit.  
"I'm ok, she still isn't conscious though, but she's holding in there," Neo said, wiping some glass off of her face. They all exited the totaled car and made their way into the forest at the end of the cul-de-sac up the road on the right. A clear path was paved through the woods.  
"Walk along the path and up to the back of the elementary school. The door to the gym is open - you can hide out in there. Seems clear for the next few minutes," he spoke, the sound of keys tap-a-tapping in the background. The smoking van was sending up plumes of smoke, but no survivors were seen crawling out of its exterior. The coast was, for the moment, clear.  
"Alright, thanks. I hope this works," Trinity said doubtfully, closing the phone and placing it in its holster.  
"We have to wake her up, we cannot do this without her consent," Morpheus spoke as they made their way up the path to the school. They saw across the yard on the road at the end of the opposite exit numerous police cars fly by down the road.  
"We haven't much time," Trinity exclaimed as they opened the door and stepped into the elementary school gym. Her voice echoed off of the walls of the gym, slightly startling her. She looked around in the darkness and wondered what they were to do.  
"Neo, Trinity, stay with her, I'm going to find the nurse's office and see what we can do with our little friend here," he said, looking into her solemnly peaceful face. Morpheus took off down the hallway with no time to lose. Neo looked around but failed to find any proper seating. With a swift, powerful kick, the grid of auditorium benches came crashing down. Trinity flinched at the loud noise, realizing just how worried she was at the moment. She didn't want to voice or expose her true fears, but when she saw how close the bullet came to Neo's head only moments before, her heart screamed in her throat, paralyzing her instantly. Her poor, jittery heart was still relaxing from that frightening moment. She found a water fountain on the side of the gym and had a drink. She started to feel a little better when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Neo looked up at her with a curious expression. She drew her weapon and aimed it at the source of the noise, not wanting to let her guard down for an instant.  
Morpheus rounded the corner and came into the gym, his arms full of equipment. He smiled at Trinity's gun aimed pointedly in his direction. "It's good to see you're on your toes. I have taught you well," he said affectionately as he made his way over, setting the equipment down beside the girl. He looked at her, her face growing paler with every moment. Trinity relaxed and put the gun away.  
"They will be coming soon; it won't be long, so we must act with haste," he said, handing her a pair of paddles. She looked at them tentatively, realizing what they were for and hoping dearly that they wouldn't be needed. Morpheus looked at her, sensing her discomfort, and spoke softly. "Somehow, I don't think we'll be needing those," he said, his eyes traveling in Neo's direction, "but better safe than sorry." Trinity nodded, watching him set down a syringe and an unlabeled vial of clear liquid. She hoped they wouldn't have to use the unknown substance either. Morpheus turned to Neo tentatively, and smiled warmly.  
"Neo, my friend," he said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We have all seen your tremendous abilities to influence the Matrix in your own way. I ask you now to do what you can for her. She must be awoken; the pill cannot be taken without her consent, for it would be wrong to take her without choice."  
Neo nodded knowingly and crossed over to where the girl lay lifelessly. He could sense all eyes on him. Swallowing hard and pushing away the persistent doubt buzzing around in his stomach, he kneeled by her and grasped her hands in his. Concentrating vigorously, his mind completely clearing and focusing on her, he felt an odd sensation growing around him. The air around his body was positively vibrating, the life source being her powerful mind. He felt pulses bouncing off and traveling through his body, sending oddly pleasurable jolts through his nerves. The air was alive with what felt like static electricity. He felt like his hair was completely standing on end. The aura of magnetism was extraordinarily concentrated not only around her head but in her hands as well. The intensity of magnetism and power was like standing next to a bar magnet the size of a skyscraper. It was a feeling Neo would never be able to fully comprehend, understand, or experience again.  
Pushing the thoughts from his mind, he concentrated once again on resuscitating her. An activity inside her body, pushing its way to the surface with incredible force, demanded to be freed. It was her will to live.  
Come on, come out, I'm here to help you, he spoke softly, knowing that somewhere inside of her consciousness she could hear him. Don't be afraid, it's all right,.. come on and live.  
When he opened his eyes, the Matrix was surging and rushing all around him. Green code spilled down the walls and surged across the floor, creating borders and boundaries of everything in the room. He noticed something strange about the aura around the girl entirely composed of code - strange rays of light and swirling magnetic pulses surrounded her body. He had never seen anything so odd before, and couldn't help but get lost in the moment. The code, very colorful in contrast, was jostled and jumbled all around her, constantly mixing and unmixing - colliding at some points and causing fluctuations in the Matrix. Closing his eyes, he heard somewhere in a dark corner of his mind a door swinging open and crashing against the wall. The agents were nearing the entrance of the school.  
"Morpheus, would you please go lock all of the doors to the gym and barricade them," he said urgently, never taking his mind off of the girl. Morpheus and Trinity both split up and began piling chairs and objects in front of the doors. He felt her heart begin to beat faster and faster, the blood in her veins pumping with a purpose. He was so close that he could feel her life.  
That's it, don't be afraid, he soothed softly. His grip on her hands tightened, literally trying to pull her soul out of the darkness and into the light. You have to trust me, Minerva.  
With that, he noticed a peculiar reaction within her at the sound of her name. Her mind pulsed and throbbed as her ears started ringing. She knew - she knew and remembered everything, and everything came surging into her mind all at once. The crashing of the waves on the shore of her consciousness nearly split her mind in half.  
Her eyes exploded open, and arching her back fiercely, she let loose a violent scream - a scream that ripped through the air and reverberated down every hall in the building, echoing on for what felt like forever. The vibrations coming from her were maxing out, and Neo was sent flying several feet through the air before crashing to the floor. The magnetic field around her had grown to innumerable lengths. Her breathing was intense and choked, as if she was going into cardiac arrest.  
Her eyes were filmed for a moment, almost milky even in the dimness of the room. She then relaxed and slumped back against the bench, breathing heavily and obviously very jittery. Neo stood up, eyeing her cautiously, and brushed himself off. Morpheus and Trinity stood back, knowing this was his place to speak with her - he had already met her, even if it was just a dream. "Hello, stranger," he said softly with a smile, looking down into her large, scared eyes. She was still breathing with a panic, but had relaxed considerably. She looked up at him, her eyes widening as the color drained out of her face. "You," she gasped, her chest heaving. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, even with all had happened in the past few hours. "You're,." He nodded. "But how,.." she spoke, the sight of the man she remembered from her dream sending pangs of confusion through her already burning mind, and awakening the butterflies in her stomach. "There isn't much time to explain," he said softly, knowing the agents would be there any moment. He was right. Suddenly, there was a loud bang from one of the gym doors, followed by another bang from the door opposite the gym. Trinity and Morpheus both looked at each other, knowing the agents had found them.  
"Neo, stay with her and get her out of here - we'll take care of the agents," Morpheus said, cocking his gun. "There should be a computer room on the second floor." Trinity pulled 2 objects from her pocket - one a small box and the other a cel phone - and placed them in his hands.  
"Keep this with you, and find the nearest computer mainframe. Take my phone, and Morpheus will have Link reach you as soon as the ports are open and ready. Make haste!" She cried, as they prepared to fend off the assault.  
We should have brought more people, Neo thought sadly. His opinion changed somewhat in their favor when he noticed Morpheus reach into his jacket and pull several pocket-sized explosives out. Trinity's secret pockets hid several proximity mines and grenades. She armed herself with a gun and several mines, placing them strategically around the barricaded doors. The pounding against each door was growing substantially, as large dents formed in the door and barricaded objects flew across the floor. Dust and pebbles from the plaster of the walls rained down as the agents beat their way in through the entrance.  
"RUN!" Trinity screamed as Neo scooped up Minerva into his arms and fled down an opposing hallway. He found a flight of stairs and searched through the code to find the computer room. Room 241 at the end of the upstairs hallway was the closest one. Several large explosions rocked the floor beneath him as he flung the doors open and made his way upstairs. Sweat dripped down his brow. He mentally hoped and prayed that his friends were winning the battle against evil. 


	5. A Brief Explaination and a Momentary Lap

Log 5  
  
Minerva clung tightly to Neo's comforting hold on her as he carried her down the hallway, scanning each room for number 241. She encircled her arms about him, enjoying the feel of his strong arms around her. She felt much safer than she had moments earlier, even though the sound of bullets and explosions were a frequent cacophony down below the second floor in her old elementary school. Tears streamed out of her eyes silently and calmly, almost subconsciously, as she rested her head on his shoulder.  
"What's happening to me?" She sniffled, closing her eyes. Neo skidded to a stop and swung a right into the computer room.  
"You will learn soon enough," he said quietly, scanning the room full of Macs and PCs. His eyes fell upon the computer mainframe against the back wall. He hurried across the room and finding several chairs set Minerva down in one of them.  
He sat at the computer and broke the screensaver, which prompted a password. "Shit," he muttered. Remembering his hacking abilities from days of yore, he set to work on breaking the password. Minerva brushed the drying tears away and took a good look at herself for the first time. She gasped in pure horror. Her clothes were all torn and tattered, blood caked all about her shirt and face. Several ragged scratches were cut across her cheek. She looked down at the mysterious wound in her arm which was throbbing searingly and ceaselessly, noticing the pain for the first time. The skin was black, blue and yellow all about the borders of the hole with streaks of an eerie green. She looked deeply into the lesion in her skin and with a reaction of utter disgust - she realized she could see clear to the white bone beneath. A sickening feeling rose in her stomach, and losing her grip on reality she almost fell over had a hand not shot out and grasped her shoulder, steadying her in her seat. Her eyes rose to his.  
"Hold on now, don't let go just yet," he said, as the desktop came up successfully. He had broken through.  
"Now, to load the program," he spoke to himself, his fingers flying across the keys. He removed small zip disk and plunged it into the drive, working with the speed of a madman. A giant explosion shook the floor, sending a Mac monitor tumbling to the ground.  
"Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed, working as fast as his fingers could take him. The program began installing automatically. The glory of plug-and- play, he thought in amusement.  
He turned to Minerva, realizing he had yet to explain anything to her. He took her small hand in his. She looked deeply into his eyes with a fiery curiosity.  
"Minerva," he started, "there is so much you have to learn. I wish I could tell you everything all at once, but it would be too much for you to handle. We haven't the time as it is. Now I need you to listen to me.  
"Do you remember what happened in your bedroom earlier?" he asked. She nodded solemnly.  
"Do you remember what you saw inside the void you created?" She nodded again. "But I don't know what I did," she trailed off.  
"There is something you need to know about all of this. This," he said, his hand motioning to the world around them, "isn't real. None of what happened today is real. It's all imaginary, like a computer game. The code you saw spilling out, the same code that burned you, is the computer code that makes up this world. Do you understand?"  
She nodded, her face an expression of complex curiosity. "But I don't understand how or why." she started.  
"There's no time to explain. All you need to know is that none of this is real and the rest will come in time. I'm sorry I can't tell you everything - as you can tell there are forces other than time working against us. Are you prepared to come with me and learn the truth behind what you have been led to believe is reality? It is not an easy take to undertake - I know, believe me, I know. But I need your consent. Are you willing to come with me and my team and learn the truth behind everything you have seen and cannot explain?" She paused, a look of depression flowing over her face.  
"But what about my family, and my friends, and my life? You mean that this is all a lie? That every emotion and thought and event I've ever experienced never happened?" The tone in her voice was one of denial and disbelief, rising with anger.  
Neo nodded. "It's a hard thing to accept," he paused as another explosion rocked the building, remembering his purpose, "but it will all come to you should you make the right decision."  
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small container. Opening it, two pills spilled out into his hand. He held his hand out in front of her, allowing her to view the two pills.  
"Take the blue one, and you stay here. You go back to your reality, and you remember nothing. This was, in essence, nothing but a dream." He eyed the red pill. "Take the red pill, and you come with me, and I show you everything you want and need to know. I will give you the truth Minerva, and I promise you it won't be easy, but I also promise you that you will no longer be living a lie." His eyes begged please. Her heart was heavy in her chest, her body sore and her mind weak.  
Minerva's mind was spinning violently - so much that she was surprised it was still functioning and had not shorted out. Everything that had happened today had taken a severe mental, emotional, and obviously physical toll on her body. There was so much she couldn't even begin to comprehend - the black hole, the agents who knew who she was and what she was doing, the heroes in black who had come to her rescue, this man,. She remembered the astral projection, the feeling that she had left her body and went to another plane into what felt like a different world. She had passed over from one side of the borderline to the unknown, and had ended up. in his dreams. It was so confusing and blurry and painful and exciting and dangerous and sporadic and breath-taking and violent and magical and dark and mysterious - she couldn't help but want, if not need to, trust this man.  
"I trust you, stranger," she said, looking deeply into his sad, beautiful eyes.  
"Give me the damn red one," she replied after a pause. Neo smiled, handing her the pill.  
"Do you need,." he started, but the pill was already popped into her mouth and vanished. "No," she replied with a smirk. Neo turned back to the computer and began typing again. The program had installed successfully and loaded. There was no need to connect to the internet because of the school's high-bandwidth LAN connection, so Neo skipped that step and got right down to the basics. His phone rang. "Neo, get your ass in gear, I don't know how much longer Trinity and Morpheus can hold out down there," Link yelled into the phone. "Alright, I'm in," Neo said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the parcel. "Ok, take the long red wire and plug one end into the USB port. Unfold the projection disk and plug the other end of the red wire into the red socket. Do the same with the blue wire. Take the black cable and plug it into an outlet. Connect it to the back base of the disk and connect all of the yellow wires to their respective sockets." Neo fumbled with the object and did as he was instructed. "Now, enter in the following IP and code. You are going to need the login and password. Login is 'White Rabbit', password is 'neverwhere'." Neo typed in all the information into the respective columns of the program and clicked 'connect'. The machine hummed loudly as the program connected. "Great! You're in. Now hook the disk over her head and wrap the straps around her ears. The metal loop should go around the front of her throat. Make sure it's not too tight. Be sure all the connections are plugged in and secured. Otherwise we could end up frying her alive." Neo nodded and turned to Minerva. "I'm going to need you to sit in this chair," he said, motioning to the one to his immediate right, "and remain absolutely still." She obeyed quietly and without fuss, and gave him a "whatthefuck" look as he attached the projection disk to her head. "Normally, we'd have to take you to our private lab to upload you out of here, but there wasn't enough time, so we developed a portable version." He smiled at her, aware of her remaining confusion. Minerva decided it was better not to ask and to be cooperative and patient. It would hopefully not be too long before she was out of this surreal dream. "Good stuff. Now I need to you follow me exactly," Link directed. Minerva looked around the room quietly, aware of her surroundings. Almost instantly, she felt an electric jolt pass through her nervous system - her mind was electrified and droning. Her hearing faded in and out, growing muffled and fuzzy. Her body felt like it was turning to a metallic liquid, slowly dripping and melting into the chair. Everything around her started warping and distorting. Colors blended together and ran, objects grew and shrunk, melting and twisting into the background. She turned to look to Neo, her head moving what felt like excruciatingly slowly, and gave him a look of terror. He smiled softly at her. Everything you are feeling is perfectly normal. Just relax. It will all be over soon. I promise. His soothing voice calmed her pounding, runny heart. Before she had the time to speak a word, the world faded in glimmering digital specks to black silence. 


	6. A Man Against Amass

Log 6  
  
"Alright! She's on the way," Link yelled happily. Cheers were heard in the background. Several computerized clicks muffled the celebration. Neo knew the line was tapped, and barely had time to duck and dodge under the desk before several gunshots flew through the air past where his head would have been. The mainframe started sparking violently, sending a spray of sparks into the air in all directions. A tower burst into flames. Neo pulled out his favorite pistol and braved the front.  
About 4 Agent Smiths were standing about the door, bullets flying in all directions. SHIT! he mentally cried. Monitors all around him burst into flames.  
He stood up and was about to take aim at the Agents who were flooding down the hallway and gathering outside the room when a giant explosion went off, much bigger than any of the previous. Every computer monitor in the room crashed to the floor and exploded. A ball of flames surged down the hallway and engulfed several of the agents who were lingering outside the doorway. He heard Trinity yelling somewhere down the hall.  
"Trin, I'm in here!" Neo shouted at the top of his lungs. Gunshots fired rapidly in the hallway. 2 agents pushed their way into the computer room. Neo somersaulted to the ceiling and stood, looking at the world upside-down as the agents fired maniacally about the room. He ran in what felt like slow motion across the ceiling, leapt to the adjacent wall and pushing himself off the wall, flew in the direction of the agents who barely had time to react. Like a bowling ball, he crashed into the agents and the three tumbled out into the hallway. One of them lost their guns in the process and cracked his head on the radiator. Green code poured out of his fractured skull - he lay motionless and still. The other aimed his gun at Neo's head and fired. Neo ducked and rolled out of the way, and springing to his feet, unloaded several bullets in the agent's direction. The agent rolled to the right, catching a shot in the back, and leapt staggering, only slightly daunted, to his feet.  
Trinity at the opposite end of the hallway hurled an agent through a classroom. He crashed through several desks and slammed into the teacher's desk, knocking the entire computer off of the desk. It crashed to the floor and started sparking up. At this point, the sprinklers went off and the fire alarm was triggered, ringing noisily in their ears.  
The agent stood up and fired several bullets at Trinity. She dodged to the left of the doorway and, falling back, unleashed a second pistol.  
Morpheus was wrestling with an agent when he heard the phone ringing at the end of the hall. It was the teacher's phone by the computer room. If he could just distract the agents long enough to reach it, the others could get out safely.  
Neo reared back and with a potent force punched the Agent in the stomach. He sailed through the air and crashed through the hallway windows, falling to his doom amidst a spray of glass and water. Wiping the water from his eyes, Neo watched as a flock of agents down below entered the building.  
"Guys, this is it, we gotta go!" He cried. Morpheus kicked the gun out of the agent's hand and cracked him in the face with the heel of his boot, sending him flying through the air into another classroom. He grabbed a free chair out of the room and, closing the door, propped the chair up against the doorknob, locking the agent inside. He began frantically shaking the door as Morpheus ran down the hallway to join Neo.  
"There's more coming," Neo yelled through the rain and the sirens. The hallway was slippery and wet, causing a lack of friction to send anyone not steady on their feet to their clumsy doom. "Get the phone, it's Link. I'll handle the rest." Morpheus nodded and ran down the hallway, his jacket flapping wildly.  
Trinity stumbled out of a classroom holding her side. She was groaning something fierce, her face twisted in a contortion of pain. Blood was trickling out between her fingers. Neo knelt beside her, knowing she had been shot in the side. It thankfully didn't appear to be a rib cage injury, otherwise Trinity would most likely have been unable to move without knocking herself unconscious from the pain.  
"Trin, I know it hurts, but you gotta get to the phone. I'll deal with the rest. Hurry!" He yelled, helping her to her feet. She was reluctant to leave his side. "Neo, I can't leave you here alone - it's my duty to stay and ensure your survival," she moaned softly. "I can handle them Trin, I promise you I'll be alright. Morpheus already left - follow him." The sound of imminent danger rang in his ears. "Go, now!" With a grimace, Trinity limped down the hallway in determination.  
A chair came hurtling through the air and crashed into Neo's back. He stumbled across the hallway and leaned against the wall in pain, his head throbbing and his back aching. His eyes rose to watch the agent step confidently and pompously out into the hallway. He raised a gun to Neo's head.  
"It was nice knowing you, Mr. Anderson, but it will be even better watching you die," he growled, cocking the gun. The sound of a thousand footsteps echoed in the stairwell as more agents flooded the building in search for Neo and the girl. An explosion was heard, and Neo's eyes widened. He quietly uttered a small moan and slumped back against the wall. 


	7. Overcoming Himself Like Victory

Log 7  
  
Neo closed his eyes in a silence of dread, feeling the warm blood ooze down his face. It trickled quietly down his forehead, curving along the socket of his eye and slinking across his cheek at a vehement pace.  
"NEO!" Trinity cried, her hands flying to her mouth. She could not believe her eyes - she could not believe the code. Neo had been shot in the head. Her mind raced with a barrage of curses amidst an array of shoulda, coulda and woulda's.  
He raised a quaking hand to his forehead, expecting to feel an immense amount of blood. His hand produced only a small amount.  
Agent Smith had aimed directly at the center of Neo's forehead but was propelled backwards instantly upon firing the pistol by the slippery half inch of water covering the floors. He flew backwards onto his ass, sending the bullet several inches off its intended course. It had thankfully only grazed the side of Neo's head.  
"He's fine, Trinity. The floor was so watery that he slipped and misfired. Agent Smith fucked up and wound up on his wet ass," Link explained with a happy chuckle, his eyes scanning the code. Neo would be alright. A woosh of air escaped Trinity in a passionate breath of relief. Her heart continued to pound on in her ears. All of the crew members gathered around the screen were silently cheering for Neo.  
Neo stood up wobbly, still quite shaken from the attack. Agent Smith, drenched and furious, looked up at his opponent from his wet seat on the hallway floor. Neo looked down with a boiling hatred bubbling to its carbonation point. "My time isn't up yet, Agent Smith," he sneered, "but yours is." Smith hadn't the time to retort before Neo's foot came in contact with his jaw, sending him spiraling backwards into the classroom in a mist of blood and flying broken teeth. He crashed into several chairs and lay motionless on the floor, a puddle of blood drizzling from his gruesomely destroyed mouth.  
The doors in the hallway burst open to reveal a swarming, buzzing crowd of Agent Smiths, all with guns drawn and aimed at Neo. This was his last stand.  
"Come on, get out of there," Link whispered, the phone still ringing endlessly in the background.  
Neo steadied himself, his heart pounding in his ears as the seconds ticked past like hours. He felt that if he were to just flinch or twitch, every gun aimed at him would go off and slice him like swiss cheese. He daren't breathe. Tick, tock.  
A small voice inside his head caught his attention. It was very faint, almost angelic, and seemed to be a thousand miles away on the end of a tin-can telephone. He listened closely in those milliseconds. Tick, tock.  
Neo, you can do it. We all believe in you. You are unstoppable. You will overcome. It was Trinity.  
With a surge of courage and understanding, he realized what she meant. His heart no longer exploded in his ears - he felt a calming peace settle over him. Raising his eyes to the crowd, he spoke with both valor and pride.  
"I dare you to hit me if you can," Neo snidely smirked. At the moment his voice reached the ears of the agents, every single gun fired - a veritable tidal wave of bullets streaming in Neo's direction. Neo patiently waited as the bullets approached him. Tick, tock.  
He simply held out his hand in front of him, in a stopping gesture, and waited. He closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating. Tick, tock.  
Every single bullet, as if obeying orders given strictly by their master, stopped instantly two feet away from Neo. Each individual bullet hovered motionless and silent in the air as if suspended by some anomaly of gravity. Neo's mind and heart raced with excitement. He could believe that he had just stopped a deadly barrage of ammunition with just his mind. He didn't have to worry anymore. He knew. Every bullet hovering in the air dropped to the floor in a chiming symphony, ringing up and down the hallway in musical reverberations.  
The jaws of most of the agents dropped open in a gaping O of confusion and disbelief. Two Smiths shoved through the crowd and stood sinisterly face to face with Neo.  
In a fraction of an instant, Neo had leapt into the air, hovering just above the heads of the two foremost agents. His feet made contact with both faces of the Smiths and they were catapulted backwards into the crowd. Like bowling pins, the group dropped in a domino effect, causing a massive agent pileup in the doorway of the stairwell.  
Tired of wasting time and desperately wanting to leave this place, Neo landed softly on the ground, squatted, and with the aftershocks of a sonic boom, flew through the air down the hallway in his favorite Superman pose. He reached the end of the hallway and picked up ringing phone, shooting his jumbled enemies a last smile before vanishing into thin air. 


	8. A Cold New World

Log 8  
  
Neo was unplugged and greeted by a cheering audience. Nearly ever crew member aboard the ship was gathered around the computer mainframe and clapping wildly. Trinity embraced him in a tight, happy hug.  
"You did it Neo. I knew you could!" She beamed. Neo felt a proud, satisfied smile cross over his face.  
"We all did," Morpheus said, shaking his hand tightly. Neo was taken aback by such displays of good spirits. He was momentarily humbled.  
"Where is she? Did she get out alright?" Neo asked, forgetting about his accomplishments for the moment.  
"Yeah, she's in the loading dock now, where Maggie is moving her to the examination room. We just fished her out. She's being worked on right now," Link said, sitting back in his chair and resuming his operator duties.  
"Alright everyone, back to work. The doctors need assistance down there. Trinity, can you come with me? I'd like to go see how she's doing," Morpheus said, turning to his second in command.  
"Of course," she said, and followed her leader down the hallway. Neo paused for a moment.  
"Can I come?" He asked his friends. They turned around to face him.  
"Yes, but be prepared to help. There's a lot we must do. We haven't much time left to get her ready. Come," he said, motioning for Neo to follow.  
He took a few steps and felt pangs zing up and down his muscles and bones. He almost fell forward had it not been for his renewed sense of self and strength. He steadied himself, holding onto the pillar of the kitchen wall, and breathed in and out. He shook his head, trying to alleviate the pain and drive it from his injuries. He followed the crew down the hall to the loading dock.  
  
Minerva was laid across a long metal table in the examination room. Maggie was pacing back and forth from one side of the room to the other, picking up syringes, vials, gauze, tape, a thermometer, and an assortment of other medical instruments.  
"Maggie, how is she doing?" Morpheus asked as the trio stepped into the room. She looked up.  
"Her vitals are holding, but her heartbeat is irregular. She's also suffering from dehydration and infections in both ears. Otherwise, I'd say she's gonna make it." She filled a syringe with an unidentified liquid and injected it into Minerva's right arm. Blood dripped from the wound readily due to the skin's supple and gelatinous texture from being held in the pod for entire life. She bandaged the wound and adjusted some knobs on the monitors analyzing her condition. An extra monitor switched on, specifically for surveying her blackbody curve. The electromagnetic radiation she was emitting was wholeheartedly dominating her absorption. Her infrared emission, however, was normal.  
The three walked closer to her seemingly lifeless body. Her skin took on a deathly pale and jellylike appearance. Her bald head reflected light from all angles. There was, conversely, some stubble already forming, showing the prospect of a future full head of hair.  
"Is there anything I can do to help, Maggie?" He asked as she raced about the room, collecting jars and fiber optics.  
"Yes, actually, can you bring the IV drip? I should have plugged her in the moment she got here but I had to take care of her infections." Morpheus nodded and wheeled in the stand with the clear plastic bag. He found the correct vein in her wrist and inserted the needle.  
"What is that stuff?" Neo asked. He had never quite figured out what it was.  
"Saline. A simple salt solution used to make sure the body has enough sustenance when eating or drinking isn't an option. It also helps blood flow and efficient oxygen supply to the brain," Trinity explained, wiping the remains of pod slime from her skin.  
Neo nodded, and looked down at Minerva. "Is there anything I can do to help?"  
Maggie paused for a moment. "Sure, actually there is. Can you grab me that vial and dropper next to you? I need to administer the second set of drops in her ears." Neo handed both objects to Maggie, who put the drops into each ear. A small whimper escaped Minerva's lips. Morpheus raised an eyebrow.  
"Is she coming to already?" He asked. "Newborns don't usually come to for a few hours until the shock wears off." Maggie looked up quickly at Morpheus before injecting Minerva with another antibiotic in her left arm.  
"Let's just say this one has an aggressive will to live. Ever since I got her up here it seems like her consciousness is trying to burst out of her chest. I had to give her a muscle relaxer to get her to calm down - her heartbeat was through the roof." She carried an armful of vials to the cabinet and placed them back in alphabetical order. Morpheus and Trinity sterilized the syringes she had used and placed them back in the metal drawers. Maggie reached for a vial of pinkish liquid and injected a small amount into the soft flesh of Minerva's neck. The vial was labeled 'hair re- growth hormonal formula'.  
"Her temperature finally seems to be stabilizing, but her electromagnetic emission rate is still through the roof." She went over a printout of the readings of Minerva's brainwaves. "She's also had some fluctuations in her cognitive reflexes. I'm going to perform some more tests after she gets some rest." Maggie pulled the white sheet tighter around Minerva's body to keep her temperature stable, as Goosebumps were breaking out all over her skin.  
The group was turning to leave and head back upstairs when they heard a familiar voice.  
"What.. What the hell,." she groaned. Minerva's head rolled over, her eyes struggling to open.  
"That's.." Morpheus muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. He walked over to her.  
"Minerva, get some rest. You've had quite a day and a long road of recovery ahead of you." She snorted softly.  
"I want to get up," she moaned. "Why won't my eyes open? Where did my hair go? Where am I?" She asked, becoming flustered. She tried to move, but Maggie placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.  
"Feisty, aren't we? You lay back Minerva, you aren't in the best of conditions to get up. Just relax. I promise you'll feel as good as new very soon." Minerva exhaled a sigh of defeat.  
"What happened?" She asked after a moment. Neo looked into her face before answering. Her face was pale and sickly looking, but color was returning to her skin.  
"You are no longer a prisoner of the Matrix. Welcome to the real world," he said softly.  
"Real.. But,." She started. Weakness overcame her and her breathing steadied. "I'm tired."  
"And you should be. Sleep now. Everything will come in time. Just be patient," Trinity soothed. The three turned and left the room. 


	9. Truths Bleeding Like My Heart

Log 9  
  
A few days had passed, and Minerva rarely awoke. Her body was working tremendously to replenish all that it had lost and never gained. Her heartbeat eventually settled in to its normal pattern, and her temperature and flux balanced itself out. Color was returning to her body, and her hair was growing exceedingly fast because of Maggie's new re-growth formula. She was looking better everyday.  
Neo and Trinity visited her often. Morpheus instructed them to be patient, that as the prospect of war was closing in on them, it would be a while before Minerva was strong enough to take the test.  
One evening, Minerva awoke to the darkness of the recovery room. A soft blanket was wrapped around her and a pillow was propped under her head. She plucked the patches from her neck off and itched the irritated skin underneath. She sat up on the table feeling awake and refreshed as if she had just slept for 40 years. She yawned, and felt a ravenous hunger in her stomach growl. Minerva rubbed her stomach, and her fingers passed over two strange holes in her body. Her hand stopped, and her heart thudded in anticipation. What the. She traced her fingers all over her torso, her hands running into several plastic devices sewn into her skin. She found a row of holes and ports all along her spine, and grimacing in horror, she slid off the table to go find a mirror. Her legs wobbled underneath her, and she gripped the table for support. Steadying herself, she took several deep breaths and stretched her muscles. They creaked and snapped in protest, but the pain subsided to relaxation and a feeling of tension gone. Remembering her old exercise moves, she stretched out her whole body, touching her fingertips to her toes and rotating each limb and limbering up each muscle. When she was feeling flexible enough to walk, she found no mirror in sight, so she wandered around the room, her eyes passing over the many cabinets and drawers and shelves and monitors. One monitor on the other side of the room was beeping. It showed a flatline rate, where the patch had once been connected to her neck. She smirked and noticed an odd sensation coming from her feet. Her skin was frigid cold where her skin was making contact with the floor. She had never felt such a real, raw sensation before. It was if every feeling she had ever had in her previous life was muffled and subdued compared to the sensation of cold, hard metal to soft, warm flesh. She smiled at the feeling, a part of her understanding now what Neo meant by her previous life as being just a simulation. Maggie sat up in bed, hearing in her end of the CB radio the sound of a flatline. In a panic, she raced down the stairs to the recovery room to tend to Minerva. Minerva found a pair of clothes folded on the table near the doorway and a pair of sneakers sat on the floor. Looking down and realizing she was just in a bra and underwear, she quickly dressed herself and made her way through the dense darkness into the next room. She felt around in the dimness, her eyes painfully trying to focus, and finding a staircase climbed it carefully through the dark. The level upstairs was no brighter. Her eyes painfully adjusted to the light that dripped down from small emergency lights up on the ceiling. She felt her way through to the next room, which had a vertical ladder leading up to a third floor where streams of light cascaded down into the darkness. Seeing no reason why she should remain in the dark on the second floor, she climbed the ladder and found herself shielding her eyes to the light. It stung and burned her virgin eyes, causing her to fall back and almost lose her grip on the ladder. The pain echoed from her pupils to her brain and back before it subsided. She paused, allowing her eyes to adjust before moving on. The third floor was silent. She made her way down the metal hallway past walls of tubes, wires, cables and pipes. This was without a doubt the strangest place she had ever been. Maybe it's a ship of some sort, she thought to herself as she ambled slowly and cautiously down the hallway. She feared that lurking around the corner might be the unknown. She found herself at what appeared to be the front of the ship. There was a computer mainframe with several dozen monitors all hooked up to the mainframe. Streaming green code flowed down the three foremost monitors in endless columns. She walked closer to the monitor, narrowing her eyes in wonder. That's. that's what was in my room! She thought, letting a gasp escape from her lips. She was about to sit at the chair and study the code when her stomach growled loudly. First some food for thought, she said to herself. She walked into the adjacent room where a long metal table sat with numerous chairs. She had found the kitchen. Very cool, she pondered as she searched through metal cabinets for food. All she found was jars of unidentifiable white slop, bowls and spoons, coffee ingredients, and nothing more. Her mouth dropped. Where's the cereal? And bread? And meat and fruit and soda and juice and snacks and potato chips and pretzels and ice cream and chicken and steak and chocolate? her mind screamed as she rummaged through the kitchen for sustenance. She sat down dejectedly at the table in the dim light of the kitchen. She was alone, cold, hungry, scared, confused, and overcome with so much emotion that she buried her head in her hands and burst into tears. Neo sat up in his bed in alarm, yet again damning the fact that his room was the closest to the front of the ship. He heard cries coming from somewhere around the kitchen. He stood up, yawned, and scratched his back, figuring he better go see what the problem was. Maggie, meanwhile, reached the recovery room, taking the elevator rather than the stairs. She flipped on the lights and was given a view of an empty room. Minerva's clothes were gone, and the patches had been removed from her neck. It was obvious Minerva felt ready enough to walk on her own. Before he headed up the stairs to alert Morpheus, she studied the last printout on Minerva's vitals to make sure she was not in any imminent danger. The printouts read relatively normal and healthy. Neo headed down the hallway, his footsteps echoing off of the metal floor. The cries were quieted upon hearing his approaching to soft weeping. He reached the kitchen and flipped on the lights to see Minerva sitting at the long metal table. Her cheeks were wet and flushed, her eyes red and swollen with grief. Her clothes, all too big for her, dangled over her hands and feet, making her take on a shrinking appearance. She stopped crying as she watched him walk into the kitchen. "Good morning," he said softly, trying not to startle or bother her. He pulled a chair out and sat down, realizing this is the first time they were meeting in the real world. "Are you ok?" He asked. "No," she sniffled, rubbing her nose on her shirt sleeve. Her face was beet red - a step up from deathly pale. "What's wrong?" He asked curiously. She lowered her eyes to the ground. "I miss my parents, and my cats, Milo and Baron. I miss my house and my room, and my CDs, and my drawings, and my poems. I miss my clothes, and my friends, and my school, and my neighborhood. I miss food, I miss. I miss my old life." She rubbed her eyes sadly. "Why am I here? What purpose do I have to you? What did I do to deserve this?" Her voice rose in anger. "What happened to me!?" Neo paused and leaned back in his chair. "You have every right to your emotions and questions, Minerva. You went through an extremely traumatic and painful situation with little foundation of what was going on. But I guess you're ready to know now." He cleared his throat. Minerva's eyes dried as she sat patiently waiting for an answer.  
  
"Long ago, about a century or so - the exact date I'm unsure of - a great war broke out between man and machine. Humankind created machines in the replica of their own race, and used the machines as slaves to do their bidding. They disrespected them to such great lengths that they rebelled. The machines in return were slaughtered in masses, and what remained of their kind fled to the Middle East where they created their own society, Zero One. They flourished and eventually dominated the world's economy. Mankind created a blockade to cut off their influence on the world trade market and gain back their power, and the machine population sent two representatives to the UN to offer a compromise. They were rejected as a nation and war broke out. Mankind bombed them, but they survived and created better machines. Man then destroyed the sky to prevent the machines' main source of power - solar energy - from reaching them. The machines retaliated, and knowing the weakness of the human body, obliterated most of the human forces in a violent and gory battle. They enslaved what remained of the human race in massive fields where humans are harvested and grown. Their biological energies are used to fuel the machine city, where the machines are building their army for the final battle. The slaves are plugged into a computer simulation of the real world as it was back in 1999. It is called the Matrix. Every person in the Matrix projects their digital self using their mind, which is the port through which you are inserted in. You were once in the Matrix, as are your parents, your friends, your neighbors and fellow citizens. The agents who were in your house were duplicates a computer virus named Agent Smith that has been attacking and destroying any member of the Matrix who becomes aware of the truth." Neo paused. Minerva's expression dropped to one of incredulity. "What remained of the free humans who weren't enslaved by the machines built a city near the center of the Earth using the deep underground sewer systems that survived the war. Zion, as the city is called, is the last remaining stronghold of the human race. It has been destroyed and rebuilt 6 times in past wars. We are assembling what we have left of our forces to fight the final war, which will be waged in several days. The machines have recently begun digging their way towards Zion. It is only a matter of time before they reach us." Neo sighed sadly. He shook his head and looked forlornly up at Minerva. "Do you understand, Minerva?" He asked. She nodded, and then shook her head. "How the. what the.when,." she stuttered, an angry look forming over her face. "My whole life was a FUCKING LIE!?" she screamed, startling Neo. He was taken aback by her sudden rage. Minerva, in a childish display of temper, took a swing at the metal cup that was sitting atop the kitchen table. Before her hand even reached it, it jumped off the table on its own, clattering to the floor in a metallic clang. Her mouth dropped open, and she glanced at Neo with a look of bewilderment. "What's happening to me?" she asked quietly, her pulse racing and her mind spinning. She slumped down in her chair defeatedly. She couldn't take this barrage of enlightenment anymore. She began to wish she had continued to live blindly in the seeming paradise that was the Matrix. Tears surfaced in her eyes again. "Oh God,." she muttered sadly. Neo reached out and placed his hand over hers for comfort. She squeezed her eyes shut against the truth. "Minerva, this is going to take time - both time and effort on your part. This is the way things are, as hard as it is to accept. You were raised in a false lie - nothing that existed before this moment matters. I know you may wish you hadn't taken this path, but it's truly for the best. Every emotion and feeling you have ever had was simulated, every action null and void. It's time to restart your life. This is where Zion needs your help." "Zion needs my help?!" She exclaimed in exasperation. Neo was about to explain when Maggie reached the kitchen. "Have you,. oh. Hello, Minerva," she said with a smile, entering the kitchen and taking a seat at the table. "How are you feeling?" "Confused, depressed, and hungry," she replied matter-o-factly. Maggie frowned. "I'm sorry there isn't much food aboard the ship, as you may already know," she said, taking notice of the open drawers and cabinets. Minerva sighed. "I can make you something if you like. It's about all we have." Minerva nodded solemnly as Maggie poured her a bowl of slop. She placed the bowl in front of her on the table. Minerva dug into the food as if she hadn't eaten a solid meal in weeks - which was in fact true. She devoured the bowl like a hungry animal before Neo and Maggie's eyes. She let loose a tremendous burp at the end. The two laughed. "What was that?" she asked, craving another bowl. Maggie poured her more. "It's actually a mixture of rice and honey. It's cheap to make and isn't too bad. You like it?" She asked, placing the bowl in front of her. Minerva agreed as she dug into the second bowl. She ate slower this time, savoring the taste and the satisfying feel of a filled stomach. Maggie placed a hand warmly on Minerva's shoulder. "It's good to see you up and about Minerva. I'll go set up a bedroom for you," she said, and walked down the hall to do so. Minerva smiled. "She's nice," she said quietly. He nodded. Minerva slurped up the rest of the slop and dabbed her face with a napkin. Neo did a double take. "My napkin," he said, reaching for it. Minerva, giving him a curious look, looked down and unfolded the crumpled napkin to reveal a poem - her poem. She raised a trembling hand to her mouth. "Neo," she said softly, staring deeply into his eyes, "how do you know this poem?" "You came into my dreams Minerva," he said simply. She looked down at the napkin again and felt her heart quiver in her chest. "Oh my God,. so if it wasn't my dream,.. then I entered yours?" She asked tentatively. Neo nodded. "You were still plugged in even in my dream, but yes, you did." She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That's,. that's amazing," she murmured, trailing off into her own little world. Her mind cleared momentarily, flooding her eyes and bringing her back into the world of sunshine, grass, blue sky and the mysterious man who now sat before her. Minerva was jolted back to reality. She sat, blinking her eyes. She had zoned out momentarily. At this point, the silence between the two was full of tension and uncertainty. She decided to break the silence. "What was it you were saying before about Zion needing my help?" She asked, back- tracking.  
"Oh, yes. Well, as you know the war between man and machine is nearly upon us - mere days away. The crew assigned to develop an alternative method of fighting the machines has failed. The device they designed was originally supposed to concentrate some of the earth's magnetism from the core, which mind you is in the vicinity of Zion. A strong enough blast would shut down the entire army of machines before it ever reached the gates of the city. The device couldn't handle its own purpose, and destroyed its own hardware each time it was tested. Not to mention the fact that the machine couldn't fully concentrate the magnetism into a solid beam - electromagnetic waves sometimes emanated from it in all directions, which would prove disastrous to Zion's computer system should the machine be used within close enough range. This is where you come in.  
"We have been watching you for a short while, Minerva. Your telepathic ability to concentrate the natural energies around you is miraculous. We need your help in fighting these machines. Your ability to focus the electromagnetic waves around you is the key behind why our machine isn't working. The machine medium isn't stable enough to handle such an undertaking, but your mind is." He paused, allowing Minerva to collect all this information. A look of distress passed over her face but soon receded. I am Zion's saving grace, her mind muttered, a feeling of sickness coming over her. Her stomach was upset with the thought of such a burden on her shoulders. "We need your help in fighting the machines. You are the miracle we have been looking for. You are the prophecy of the oracle." 


End file.
